CNL-540 Topic 2: Short Answer Questions
Your Name Here:
Directions: Provide short answers of 100-150 words each for the following questions/statements. Do not exceed 200 words for your response. Use the textbook, and any other scholarly resources to support your responses. Include at least two to three peer-reviewed journal articles beyond the textbook and course readings.
- What are the key components of the research process that every counselor reading research should be aware of? Define these components and explain their significance.
- What specific methods would you utilize in beginning your review of the literature within counseling research? Discuss the steps and rationale for conducting a review of the literature. Include specific examples related to the methods and steps for conducting a review of the counseling literature in your response.
- Watch the Objectivity and subjectivity in social research video. What are the issues of objectivity and subjectivity as they relate to methodological issues in conducting counseling research?
- How would you define Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)? Discuss the inherent strengths and limitations of EBP.
References
CNL-540 Topic 2: Short Answer Questions
Your Name Here:
- What are the key components of the research process that every counselor reading research should be aware of? Define these components and explain their significance
The main components of the research process are a research problem, a literature review, study design, data collection, data analysis, and writing the research report. The identification of a research problem entails selecting a problem that is of significant concern to the researcher. The literature review is an overview of major writings about the research topic. The purpose of the literature review is to help the researcher contextualize the research problem and to develop research objectives, questions, and hypotheses. A research design is an overall strategy for carrying out the research process that includes data collection, analysis, and interpretation. The data analysis process is a systematic application of logical or statistical techniques for data evaluation that helps researchers to make conclusions about their findings. The research report is a document that outlines and describes the research process, data, and findings and is expected to be accurate and objective (Niraula, 2019).
- What specific methods would you utilize in beginning your review of the literature within counseling research? Discuss the steps and rationale for conducting a review of the literature. Include specific examples related to the methods and steps for conducting a review of the counseling literature in your response.
The main methods I would use at the beginning of the literature review process include writing a research question, determining keywords to be used in the literature search, and conducting the search in several databases to access relevant data. According to Niraula (2019), the first step in conducting a literature review is to describe an exclusion/inclusion criterion which will help determine which literature sources will be relevant to the research topic. Examples of inclusion criteria may include characteristics of research studies such as the year published, the language of publication, and participant population. The next step is to identify the specific search terms and select the databases where the search will be conducted. The actual search should then be conducted and the findings synthesized to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the selected sources and to identify specific themes. The final step is to write the actual review and ensure that the review is organized in specific concepts, approaches, or themes.
- Watch the Objectivity and subjectivity in the social research video. What are the issues of objectivity and subjectivity as they relate to methodological issues in conducting counseling research?
Objectivity is achievable when conducting research. Researchers can remain objective by removing themselves from the data collection process and only focusing on interpreting raw data. Quantitative research methods tend to be more objective since researchers rely on mathematical interpretation to make conclusions from the data. However, in sociological research, using objective methods may not be desirable or possible since the selection of the research topic and conclusions made reflect the theoretical knowledge and beliefs that researchers possess. When selecting research methods in the counseling research, experiments facilitate the gathering of unbiased data although they are not always a true reflection of what happens in the real world. Other methods such as qualitative interviews and observations allow researchers to make subjective interpretations of human behavior hence they are important in counseling research (Bird, 2020).
- How would you define Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)? Discuss the inherent strengths and limitations of EBP.
EBP refers to the use of current, relevant, and valid evidence to influence decisions in counseling practice. Counselors use their explicit and tacit knowledge to provide interventions based on specific client contexts, their cultural expectations, and available resources. The main strengths of using EBP include a good basis for making a clinical judgment, legal protection, utilization of more effective procedures, and effective utilization of resources to promote the best clinical practice. However, there are several limitations to using EBP. In some areas, there may be a shortage of evidence on best practice methods. It also takes a long time to find credible, valid, and relevant evidence (Cook et al., 2017).
References
Bird, F. (2020). A defense of objectivity in the social sciences, rightly understood. Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy, 16(1), 83-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2020.1785679
Cook, S., Schwartz, A., & Kaslow, N. (2017). Evidence-Based Psychotherapy: Advantages and Challenges. Neurotherapeutics, 14(3), 537-545. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13311-017-0549-4
Niraula, S. (2019). A review of research process, data collection, and analysis. Insights in Biology and Medicine, 3(1), 001-006. https://doi.org/10.29328/journal.ibm.1001014